For those of you who are following the DWP saga (re. ME/CFS), here's an interesting report by Professor Malcolm Hooper, Eileen Marshall & Margaret Williams. Here are a few quotes from the report:

"The issues raised in this document concerning the undisclosed commercial conflicts of interest on the part of those seeking to impose their own "rehabilitation" regimes upon the sick and disabled in the UK ought to be of immediate concern to the BMA Ethics Committee and to the Professional Conduct Committee of the General Medical Council.


"In view of the failure of all previous Working Groups to take on board the empirical scientific evidence about ME/CFS, it is hoped that the outcome of the Gibson Parliamentary Inquiry will produce the long-awaited breakthrough so that the additional burden of unnecessary financial hardship forced upon those with ME/CFS -- many of whom are very sick -- may finally be alleviated."

-- Professor Malcolm Hooper, Eileen Marshall & Margaret Williams, The Group On Scientific Research Into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (The Gibson Parliamentary Inquiry); Concerns About A Commerical Conflict Of Interest Underlying the DWP Handbook Entry on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome --

Here's another interesting quote from this report:

It is of particular concern that:

i. as far as ME/CFS is concerned (and in general), the proposed psychiatric "rehabilitation" regimes ie. CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) and GET (graded exercise therapy) that are to be imposed on UK claimants are poorly researched; they have already been shown to be of no lasting benefit, and they may be harmful: in four surveys of a total of 3,074 ME/CFS patients, 77% of those who had tried CBT found that it either made no difference or made things worse, and of the 1,467 patients who had tried a graded exercise "rehabilitation" regime, 48% found it to be the most harmful intervention

"(...) v. the psychiatrists advising the DWP who advocate this strategy have an undeclared financial conflict of interest: many are medical advisers to insurance companies

"(...) viii. recent briefings on reform of Incapacity Benefit indicate:

"(...) * that claimants who decline compulsory "rehabilitation"(because they may be physically too sick ) will be refused benefit (Independent, 27th December 2005)."

-- Professor Malcolm Hooper, Eileen Marshall & Margaret Williams, The Group On Scientific Research Into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (The Gibson Parliamentary Inquiry); Concerns About A Commerical Conflict Of Interest Underlying the DWP Handbook Entry on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome --

To read the full report, click here...